A SEX beast who exchanged letters about his perverted desires to rape and kill young girls has won a partial victory in the Appeal Court.

A SEX beast who exchanged letters about his perverted desires to rape and kill young girls has won a partial victory in the Appeal Court. Hartlepool man Peter Leighton will now be eligible for release on parole two years earlier after a ruling by judges yesterday.

The pervert from Hutton Avenue was jailed for life at Teesside Crown Court in November last year after being convicted on two counts of conspiracy to rape.

He had also pleaded guilty to possessing, advertising and distributing indecent photographs of children.

Three Appeal Court judges yesterday upheld the life sentence imposed on the 47-year-old former soldier, chauffeur, security guard and plumber.

But they reduced the length of time he must spend in prison before being considered for parole from seven and a half years to five and a half.

Lord Woolf, sitting with Mr Justice Steel and Mr Justice Butterfield, said the life sentence should remain and it was appropriate that Leighton should be kept in custody until he was judged no longer to be a danger to young girls.

But in reducing the tariff period, Lord Woolf said the trial judge Mr Justice Rougier had slipped into error when he made the calculations.

Sex beast Leighton was snared in April last year when a box of letters, written in 1995, was discovered in a room that had been occupied by Leighton.

Lord Woolf said: The letters contained details of adults raping children and adults planning to abduct, rape and in some cases, kill children.

There were also large quantities of photographs of children which were of an indecent nature and quantities of drawings of adults committing sexual acts with children.

Leighton denied having any intention to rape children, saying he had corresponded with two men he met in an Internet sex chat room to encourage them to buy pornography. Timothy Roberts, representing Leighton, earlier told the court his client did not deserve a life sentence.

These were victimless offences and there was no harm done to any person, he told the appeal panel.

Leighton, formerly of Wyverne Court, Hartlepool, originally appeared at Teesside Crown Court alongside two co-accused – Edward Houghton, 48, of Arrow View, Kington, Hereford, and Roger Thompson, 33, of Mastin Moor, Chesterfield.

Both received eight years jail after being found guilty of conspiring to rape girls as young as seven.